[Panzerkampf]
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makie and her expanded group of friends consisting of Yotaro, aka Kirishima, Haruna and of course, her bestest friend ever, Bon-Bon, aka Bismarck, had all found themselves peacefully inside I-401's bridge as her vessel silently treaded through the Ogasawara Waters. The human crew was understandable a little uncomfortable with having three foreign Fleet of Fog mental models in such close proximity to themselves. Iona, the name which I-401 goes by, had naturally put all of the three mental model's weapons on lockdown, much to Bismarck's annoyance. Now the group of four, including Kirishima, naturally, were sitting in a circle on the ground, playing cards. Bismarck was surprisingly abysmal at playing the game, despite his god-level poker face. They were patiently waiting for Iona to make it to their fortress-monastery base or whatever it was that her captain mentioned. While they waited Bismarck made sure to catalogue every member of the crew currently present in the bridge.
This was I-401's mental model, she goes by the name of Iona. Quite the stoic girl with a strangely sympathetic and simple heart, judging by what little information Bismarck obtained from their limited interaction.
This is Chihaya Gunzou, Iona's currently acting captain. He seemed rather accepting of Bismarck's, Haruna's and Kirishima's presence on the bridge, even with their weaponry on lockdown. What a strange man. Well, he already scored a few bonus points for knowing how to dress. That's a cool looking suit alright.
Oribe Sou, the second in command after Chihaya Gunzou. He seems to be one of the more sensible people in the crew as he was still wary of the new mental model's presence. Bismarck wasn't quite sure what his deal was though with that strange-looking helmet. Allergies perhaps?
This is Kashihara Kyouhei, the man in charge of I-401's weaponry and armament. Bismarck didn't quite know what to think of him as he spotted quite a few pictures of women clad in nothing but bikini plastered around the dark-skinned man's console. Plus his hair was kind of tacky.
One of the two human females in the I-401's crew, Hodzumi Shizuka. She seems okay, a bit timid but okay. She's quite important, acting as Iona's sonar operator. Shizuka seems friendly enough, having given Makie some candy to munch on while they play cards.
Watanuki Iori, the ginger-headed engineer of I-401 who spent most of her time in the engine room, communicating with the bridge via an audio-video feed. She didn't seem all that special although she could try to act and dress a little bit more modest. It was Makie who wanted to go with Gunzou and Iona, Haruna only seemed to encourage it and Kirishima didn't have much of a choice. Wherever Makie goes, Bismarck goes. He made a promise, after all.
Before Bismarck could lose a game of cards for the hundredth time, Gunzou made an announcement, "We've arrived at Iwoto."
"...Impressive," Gunzou chuckled lightly at the comment from the former Kriegsmarine flagship.
There were three moonpools in total in their base of operations, quite large too with more than sufficient enough space to accommodate even a battleship of Yamato's scale. As the submarine entered the dock, something rather peculiar popped up on her sensors.
"There's someone strange here," Iona's exclamation made the entire crew stop in their disembarking, "I'll display her on the screen."
A maroon coloured warship appeared on the screen. Large enough to be considered more than a light cruiser, but not quite armed enough to be a battleship. A heavy cruiser. From the surprised looks of the I-401 crew, nobody expected the heavy cruiser Takao to make her appearance.
"This is surprising, to say the least," commented the captain of I-401, trying his best to stay level-headed, "Let's go ashore."
"Oi, is that a good idea?" Kyouhei's scepticism wasn't misplaced, finding an AWOL warship in your garage isn't something that happens very often.
"Iona, Hyuuga is fine, right?" by the sound of it, Chihaya Gunzou had even amassed himself a former Japanese flagship, Hyuuga, what a surprising development.
Haruna was obviously surprised to hear the name, "Hyuuga? You mean the fast battleship Hyuuga?"
"She's fine. She's come down to the docks," stoically replied Iona, ignoring Haruna's question.
"If Hyuuga hasn't been subjugated then there shouldn't be a reason to worry. It's easier to come ashore and investigate personally," this man is just as reckless as Makie, why not send Iona out for reconnaissance instead of going out personally and risking death?
The crew with their "guests" walked ashore, some still wary of Takao's presence in their secret base. Bismarck had made sure to keep a close eye on anything the strangely dormant heavy cruiser does. What he didn't expect for a greeting though was a fucking floating egg with a face on it.
"Welcome back, Captain," it spoke!
"Good work, Hyuuga," praised her well-dressed captain, satisfied with her efforts, "Not at all. It is the responsibility I have chosen to bear."
Everything seemed acceptably normal until Hyuuga's sights landed on Iona. Then, everyone's day just got a whole lot weirder. The egg hatched, or rather opened? Whatever, the egg isn't important. What is important is who came out of it. A female mental model literally jumped out of her contraption-egg-thing and attached herself to Iona, smothering her with hugs. Sensing Makie's Innocence Level decreasing, Bismarck placed his hand in front of her eyes to block the rather suggestive sight of a weirdly horny mental model. To say that Bismarck was disturbed by the Japanese battleship's behaviour would be an understatement.
Not even the human crew could provide an explanation, all looking spectacularly dead inside, "You get used to it."
When Hyuuga started to get a little too touchy with Iona though, the submarine mental model kicked the brunette into the wall, "Resupply corrosive torpedoes and repair the supergravity cannon."
"To think you'd ally yourself with I-401, fast battleship Hyuuga," Haruna's monotone voice made it hard to differentiate whether she was mocking her or acting surprised by the Ise-class battleship's actions.
"Fast battleships Haruna and Kirishima... and even the infamous Bismarck," Makie tilted her head slightly at the title given to the only male mental model present, "I'm aware of your situation, quite a peculiar one might I add."
"Um, not to be that guy but there's a goddamn heavy cruiser parked in here," wow, look at Kyouhei being responsible, stress really does make people do uncharacteristic actions.
Hyuuga merely hummed as she took a glance at the unmoving maroon warship, "Oh, that..."
"Hello there!"
The high-pitched voice of a woman calls out to them, it didn't take a genius to know that it was indeed Takao calling out to them. Her mental model appeared as a blue-haired female dressed in a sundress, quite a beauty but not quite Bismarck's type.
She did seem a little bashful when her eyes landed on Gunzou, oh boy...
"...Who are you again?" it wasn't the right question to ask as Kyouhei soon figured out when he was shot at by two of Takao's AA guns.
The dark-skinned man must have some real Matrix skills as he literally managed to dodge speeding bullets fired from a warship. That is either some beyond harem protagonist level of luck or some serious skill. It's probably the former though.
"Alright then, let's hear what you want from us, heavy cruiser Takao!" funnily enough, nobody seemed to really give a shit about Kyouhei's near-death experience as Gunzou carried on the conversation to more pressing matters.
"W-What I w-want...?!" oh boy there she goes stuttering and blushing again, the answer was so obvious even Makie deadpanned.
The only male mental model present had been expecting Takao to say "You, Chihaya Gunzou!" or something along those lines. He did catch Hyuuga looking a little too expectant for Takao's confession, a little too enthusiastic. Oh... right. Of course. Iona is Gunzou's ship. With Takao in the picture, Hyuuga would have a lot more space to pursue a relationship with the submarine. Heh, not a half-bad plan. But... she underestimated one thing...
"I-I... I WANT THE PLANS ON THE VIBRATION WARHEAD AND ALL YOUR DATA ON IT!" it was the stubbornness of a tsundere.
Hyuuga took an exception to that. She ran at the heavy cruiser's mental model like a damn missile and started shaking her around, screaming about how lovestruck Takao looked when she first came here. What Bismarck was baffled by was that Chihaya Gunzou still didn't look rattled, at all. Is... is this... is this fucker one of those overly dense people...?
"...Let's leave those two be," everyone agreed with the captain, nobody really cared about their catfight anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, an hour later, everyone was in the mess hall, sitting around a large table. Even Takao and Hyuuga joined them, for some reason. Everyone seemed really nonchalant about Takao just sitting there even if she asked for their currently most prized data. Bismarck had taken the liberty to guess that Gunzou at least had a small speck of rationality and believed that Takao's previous stutter was a miscommunication. Now, they were all given food prepared by Hyuuga. This was the time when Bismarck would face his biggest adversary...
An object that radiated power with a soft, chocolate-brown exterior...
It was covered in the dust of its enemies...
Truly, it was something that made even Bismarck think twice...
...
...
...
It's a chocolate cat filled with more liquid chocolate.
The male Fog poked the undeniably delicious treat with his work while glaring at it, "...What the hell is this?"
"Oh-ho~? Impressed? It took me a while to make it as cute as possible!" Hyuuga was seeping with pride at being able to make something so delicious look so fucking adorable.
"...no thanks," and then he just pushed it towards Makie, "You eat it."
"Thanks, Bon-Bon!" and without any issue Makie dug her fork into the adorable cat, killing it.
It's... It's not an actual cat okay, calm down there animal rights activists! Ahem, deciding not to watch the massacre, pretty much everyone at the table averted their attention to something else. For Bismarck, it was chilli ramen. Tastes awfully mediocre. Bismarck never tasted anything so average it almost hurt. It wasn't good or bad, it wasn't bland or overseasoned. It just was. Bismarck's weakness is cute things if you couldn't tell. Spending so much time with Makie has led to a surprising change in his central personality processing unit, and here he is now, unable to even dig into a chocolate cat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makie, making full use of her freedom and the fact that they were pretty much on a private island decided that they should go to the beach. So Makie and her group of three friends made it to the beach, all dressed accordingly. It was kind of funny seeing Bismarck dressed in black shorts with a colourful Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. Makie dressed in a white and blue one-piece swimsuit, and Haruna sort of followed her trail with her own yellow one-piece swimsuit, although hers seemed oddly provocative. The cherry on top of the entire ordeal was seeing Kirishima, in her Yotaro body, try to show off in a green bikini. As any reasonable German machine of mass destruction, Bismarck set out to build the largest sandcastle the world has ever seen and left the rest of the group to their own devices. He spotted Iona and Takao talking a bit further down the shore, but he was too focused on building his sandcastle to give a damn.
"Come on Haruharu, you can't enjoy the beach with that coat!"
"Wait, Makie, no! Aah~!"
"Get your tits off me!"
'What in the fuck...?' a single glance was all Bismarck needed to know that he should just mind his own damn business.
Yup, just minding his own business. Sandcastles are all he needs. Women are temporary, sandcastles are enteral, so long as a wave doesn't wash them away. He may have taken a photo there but that is all to... commemorate the occasion! ...Okay he took a bunch of pictures but don't tell that to anyone.
Yet despite trying to trail off as much as he could away from the provocative image he just witnessed, his mind still kept doing loops back towards what he saw, 'Damn you, human emulator for emulating the natural human desire of lust!'
Luckily, as if God himself smiled down upon him, someone acted as a reprieve to his thoughts, even if unknowingly, "Bismarck."
"I-401," replied the male Fog as he stopped building his Fortress Monastery replica and listened to what the Blue Steel flagship had to say.
"Gunzou wants to talk to you," Bismarck's eyebrow rose, not because of the comically large yellow rubber duck Iona carried but because of the implications of her message.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having informed Makie and the rest of his temporary absence, Bismarck had walked back to the mess hall, quickly changing his clothes to his casual ones before he entered the room. This seemed like a pretty important topic if Gunzou had called for him and only him, so showing up dressed as a tourist probably wasn't the best image he could portray. Knocking onto the door, he was given a "come in", and so he did.
"You wanted to see me, Chihaya Gunzou?" he noted the presence of the rest of the human crew in the room but paid them little attention.
"Yeah. I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright?" Bismarck had no reason to deny him his curiosity, he was no longer part of the Kriegsmarine after all.
"Ask," it was more of a command than a reply, but it did its job.
The first question of Chihaya Gunzou was an obvious one, "Who do you affiliate yourself with?"
"Makie Osakabe," was an immediate reply from the German warship.
"Alright then, that's good news for us," idly commented Kyouhei from the background.
"Let me give you a scenario. Should we be attacked with Makie Osakabe on board, will you assist us?" Bismarck could already tell what Gunzou was getting at, a smart man, using a more powerful neutral person's weakness to gain their alliance.
"Yes," once again, there wasn't a shred of hesitation in Bismarck's voice, "However, should you purposefully jeopardize her existence..."
"...I will end you."
Kyouhei shuddered in the background while the rest of the human crew tried to play off their uneasiness from Bismarck's threat, but Gunzou held strong, "Message received. What is your plan?"
"Plan? I don't have such a thing," Chihaya Gunzou must expect him to be plotting something to ask that, "I will continue to stay by Makie's side."
"Then... if she allies herself with us, will you?" Gunzou really wasn't beating around the bush now.
"I will only ally myself with Makie Osakabe, whether she allies herself with you is none of my concern," a harsh reply to Gunzou's question, but there was still more to it, "However, should she demand it, I wouldn't mind assisting you."
And there it is, a smirk formed on Gunzou's face, just as Bismarck had expected, "Very well. Thank you for coming. I get the feeling we might need your help sooner than later."
"Do as you wish," Bismarck turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway, "I don't care what you do unless it directly involves Makie Osakabe."
Just like that, the male mental model of Fog walked out the mess hall and closed the door behind him. As he walked back to the beach a sigh escaped him, Bismarck really didn't care about what or who Makie allies herself with. But, knowing how generous and naive she is, he himself will be part of the Blue Steel Fleet before long...
...
...
...
"...I hate sand."